I am the French Whisperer! Maybe!!

When anyone found out we were moving to Paris, their first question was "Do you speak French?"  Since  March,  this is a question we have heard many times--literally making us laugh out loud as we heard it from everyone, everywhere.  We began work with a tutor to get us started speaking French back in April.  Paul has French class at work, the girls will take French in school and I will have lessons here in Paris soon.  Thanks to our friend Ryan Bradley, we also got Rosetta Stone and like it quite a bit.  We are quickly learning lots of vocabulary words and reading French is going great.  If life could be as easy as reading a sign in a store or restaurant menu, we'd doing be fine, or at least as good as Chris Farley & Alec Baldwin.

I keep saying that I am learning French by osmosis:  they speak and somehow, I just know what they are saying--most of the time anyway.  Gee, for any of us Texans, we've been speaking Spanish by osmosis all our lives--like with my yard crew and housekeeper.  We always communicated through a series of charades and "Spanglish" and that was pretty successful.  But, when the conversation gets more detailed, my French osmosis method fails me. For instance:  Ask where the futon couches are sold for the loft bed you want to purchase.  The bed is on the 4th floor, but there are no futons on this floor and there are 6 floors in the store.  Also, how much does the bed cost and does that include the mattress and/or the futon? Are there delivery charges? What colors does the futon come in? Go ahead--let me know how that high school/college French class you took about 20 years ago works now.  LOL

Also tricky was getting cell phone service (4 trips to Orange, our cell/internet/wifi provider), finding a place to board the dogs the very first week, and getting Navigo cards. (Navigo is the pass for all types of public transport, which is very important, since we use public transportation now.  MANY forms to fill out, + individual pictures required = 3 trips to their office).

I will tell you how extremely grateful I am for the technology now available to help us here in our French Adventure.  We all use itranslate on our phones, which is a great free app on the iphone.  I even cut and paste emails/text messages and it translates them.  You can enter either English or French, and you can switch between the two languages--it's fabulous. Did I mention FREE?

We were also introduced recently to Google Chrome, by my daughter, Katherine.  When you use this browser, it will translate the pages for you.  This was super helpful as we had to order some books for the girls for summer reading from French Amazon, so I could access the site in English and order what I needed.  Voila`! (That's French for "Got it!")

No one can understate the importance of GPS.  Thank you, Lord, for GPS!!!  We are able to find anything, anywhere all over the city.  I don't want to face a world without GPS, just sayin'....I recently installed the RATP app as well, which is the city's transportation network of subway, buses, trams and trains, so that connects to my GPS, which allows me to program in my trip and show me the fastest way to get anywhere--it's really slick!  I definitely recommend anyone coming for a visit to add the RATP app to your phone.  And, faithful readers, if you do visit, I am happy to be your tour guide!  I will share everything you need to know about the City of Light-- all the knowledge my one month of living here can provide!  (But seriously, let me know if you are coming, and I will do my best to share some helpful hints.)

Of course, this whole language barrier situation reminds me of a song that needs singing, so I post for your enjoyment, "Speaking French" from the musical "Lucky Stiff".  Remember, don't smile too much, they'll think you're insane.  Apologize for your bad French, and they'll injure themselves to help you.  At least, it's working for me so far.  Au revoir!